Effective December 16, new FAR Part 16 directs the FAA to make decisions on tenant complaints against airport operators within six months. Previous disputes have taken years, said the National Air Transportation Association. But NATA cautions that the FAA will have to increase its staff to make the rule work. Separately, an airport owners minimum standards handbook has been jointly produced by NATA and the American Association of Airport Executives. Holding to the standards has been shown to diminish the number of complaints from tenants, according to NATA.
Colombian regional SATENA (Servicio Aerie a Territories Nacionales) has placed an order for three Dornier 328s-the first for the aircraft in Latin America. The aircraft will be delivered by year end.
The key enabler for the Hawker Horizon and the Premier I programs is Raytheon's move toward highly automated composite construction. If the Starship was an opportunity for the company to cut its teeth on composites, the new programs show signs that Raytheon's wisdom teeth are coming in. The difference boils down to automation: The Starship was essentially hand-built; the new airplanes are largely built by an industrial robot.
In addition to the usual fare that greets passengers when they board an aircraft--such as the safety briefing cards, newspapers and magazines--Nouveautes suggests a solid chocolate hangar filled with miniature chocolate airplanes. Operators can choose from two designs of this novelty gift item: a large, solid chocolate hangar packaged in a larger finished-wood box (18 ounces for $20.95) and a diamond-shaped chocolate hangar in a decorative candy box (12 ounces for $11.95). The goodies are made from European chocolate.
The air taxi industry says it has had it with independent auditors it fears are creating a ``blacklist'' of allegedly unsafe operators. The National Air Transportation Association (NATA), which represents the interests of on-demand operators, says certain auditors are misrepresenting charter safety when selling their services to corporations.
Having two totally new aircraft on the boards at the same time is almost unprecedented in the business aircraft industry. In the case of Raytheon Aircraft Company (nee Beech) decades once separated clean-sheet turbine airplanes. The Starship was announced in the mid 1980s, and before that you have to go all the way back to the inception of the King Air in the early 1960s to find a new turbine aircraft, and even it was a derivative of the 1950s-vintage Queen Air. Times have changed.
The Philadelphia area was chosen as the site for a round of tests scheduled in the next few months for the purpose of expanding the existing VFR helicopter route system in the northeast corridor. Recently, the FAA concluded the first phase of tests and authorized the use of a route system for VFR helicopter operations between Norfolk, Virginia and Boston. For more information on the test program or about the routes, call HAI Flight Operations Committee Chairman Thomas P. Salat, Jr. at (201) 288-8464.
In a series of fast-paced events, the case of TPI International Airways took a new twist in late October. On October 18, the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) denied the small Brunswick, Georgia cargo carrier's request for reconsideration of its $28 million breach-of-contract suit against the Air Force.
The yellow Xs were painted on Chicago-Meigs Field's single north-south runway on schedule September 30. It appeared at press time that Mayor Richard Daley and his White House friend Mr. Clinton had won their battle against virtually all of aviation and the state of Illinois to turn the venerable airport into a lakefront park.
A fly-by-light engine-control system will not be introduced by Raytheon in the foreseeable future. More than two and one-half years ago, the company announced it hoped to obtain certification of such a system in Beechjets this year (B/CA, June 1994, page 15). Raytheon officials now tell B/CA that ``we have slowed down our work on control-by-light to devote financial and personnel resources to new aircraft development.'' The company is referring to the Premier and Horizon business jets.
Atlantic Aviation and Texaco are collaborating on developing an FBO at Arturo Michelena International Airport. Scheduled to open in early 1997, the facility initially will include fueling and various ground support services. For more information, contact Atlantic Aviation at (302) 322-7594.
Brazil's civil aviation agency has approved a program that allows operators of P&WC PT6A engines to extend major overhaul intervals to as much as 8,000 hours. Called MORE (Maintenance On Reliable Engines), it consists of four parts-trend monitoring, spectrometric oil analysis, borescope inspections and vibration analysis. The company is based in Minden, Nevada (B/CA, September 1995, page 51). P&WC does not endorse the program and said MORE engines are not eligible for warranty service.
In Fargo, North Dakota, the 119th Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard is not a hotbed of fighter jocks scooting about on Harley Davidsons, sunglasses at the ready and beer busts rampant when the sun is over the yardarm. Here are balding, paunching pilots with other employment at insurance companies or farms, or perhaps flying as corporate pilots. When one of these seniors fastens into an F16, the younger USAF drivers defer not only to their seniority, but to their record because the seniors are still the best air-to-air combat flyers on our planet.
Bell Helicopter and Boeing Aircraft plan to jointly introduce a nine-passenger tilt-rotor aircraft to the civil market in 2001, the companies announced at the NBAA convention in November. The aircraft will be produced under a new partnership between the two companies, which is an extension of their teaming on the military V-22 Osprey program. Bell will have a 51-percent stake. The first aircraft will be the Bell-Boeing 609, which is designed to carry six to nine passengers and is scheduled for first flight in 1999.
The story of the Hawker business jet is told in a new book, Hawker: The Story of the 125, published by Airworthy Publications in England. Initially, British Aerospace and then Raytheon commissioned author Bill Gunston to write the history of this successful mid-size corporate aircraft. The 166-page book costs $37.50 and can be ordered from AirData Publications, Southside, Manchester Airport, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 4LL England. Phone: +44 (161) 499 0024; fax: +44 (161) 499 0298; e-mail: [email protected].
National Air Transportation Association has initiated a drive to double its core membership by the year 2000. Core members (FBOs, air-taxi operators, repair stations, flight schools and suppliers) now comprise 925 companies at more than 1,100 locations. While growth is sought in all core markets, the association is aiming at general aviation FAR Part 145 repair stations. NATA estimates that it currently represents about 20 percent of this market. To launch the initiative, the association has lowered the dues for aviation businesses with fewer than seven employees.
Charles E. Hillman was appointed vice president of operations, with responsibility for directing all U.S. manufacturing of the company's aircraft products.
The shipment of 151 new U.S.-built business jets in the first nine months of 1996 compared to the 164 delivered during the same period in 1995 represented a 7.9 percent decrease, according to GAMA. The drop continued a decline in deliveries that started in the first quarter of this year (B/CA, June, page 16). However, GAMA reported an 18 percent increase in deliveries of new U.S.-built turboprops in this period-197 in 1996 compared to 167 in 1995. Therefore, total turbine aircraft shipments for the period had a net increase of only 2.4 percent-713 units to 730 units.
NASA has contracted with Williams International, the manufacturer of the FJ44 turbine engine for business jets, to be part of a four-year project to find ways to substantially reduce the acquisition price of small powerplants
Pacific Jet Aviation recently opened an FBO at Clark International Airport (the former Clark Air Force Base), which is currently undergoing modernization. The new operation is headed by Robert R. Rada and Richard Kimm. Rada is a former marketing executive with British Aerospace, while Kimm spent several years in marketing for FlightSafety International and Page Avjet. The FBO's services include fueling (Air BP), ground transportation and customs clearance. In Manila: +045 599 2818; in the United States: (864) 862-8633.
More than 53 percent of 336 companies that operate 849 corporate jets said they plan to purchase a head-up display in the next five years, according to a blind survey by HUD manufacturer Flight Visions of Sugar Grove, Illinois. Respondents willing to pay between $51,000 and $100,000 for a HUD made up 47 percent of those surveyed, while 30.7 percent would be willing to spend over $100,000. In a 1994 survey, just 28 percent of respondents said they would pay more than $50,000.
A group of tenants and users of Denver's Centennial Airport have filed suit in District Court to block planned development of an apartment complex adjacent to the airport. Mayo Aviation, Aspen Flying Club, Mid-America Freightways of Texas and other plaintiffs allege that the apartments would encroach upon the approach zone and traffic pattern for Runway 17L/35R. For many years, the airport has been popular for business operators, but activity has increased since Stapleton Airport closed.
Fleet Capital Leasing, a Providence, Rhode Island subsidiary of Fleet Financial Group, has teamed with Stamford, Connecticut-based Prime Airborne, an aircraft management and charter company, to offer fractional shares in new as well as used corporate jets. The venture, known as Prime Fleet, will operate out of New York's Elmira-Corning Regional Airport. Operations initially will be designed to serve northeastern corporations, according to John Dow, executive vice president and general manager of Prime Fleet.
A 1997 FAR/AIM series from Aviation Supplies and Academics consists of three volumes with free mid-year updates. This year, the unabridged FAR/AIM ($14.95) has added FAR Parts 119 and 142. Other additions are the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System form and the new TAF/METAR weather format information. A complete FAR index has been appended to the FAR for Flight Crew ($16.95). The FAR for Aviation Maintenance Technicians ($18.95) also has a comprehensive FAR index and includes AC 65-19G, Inspection Authorization Study Guide.
General aviation fared well in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 1996, which covers the agency's funding and operations through fiscal 1998. Perhaps the most significant victory, in the eyes of the AOPA, GAMA and the NBAA, was the defeat of user fees or proposals to make the FAA a quasi-government agency. The user-fee proposal would have charged pilots for many FAA services, including ATC, weather reports, aircraft certification and airmen licensing.
